Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Commentary of: “Wa biquwwatika’llati qaharta biha kulla shay”

وَبِقُوَّتِكَ الَّتِى قَهَرْتَ بِهَا كُلَّ شَيٍْء

(And I ask You) by Your Strength, through which You dominate everything.

Allah’s Strength, just as His holy Existence, is infinite and other abilities and strengths are insignificant before His Strength. No strength is independent from His Strength, but is rather a ray of His Power: “لا حول و لا قوه الا بالله “: “There is no Power but Allah’s.” In the last section, the phrase “كل شيء ” was briefly discussed and it was concluded that:

“كل شيء ” includes all the creatures and beings, which have been created by Allah’s Mercy, and whose exact quality and quantity no one knows and will not know until the Day of Judgment. Who is aware of the exact number of the billions of heavenly galaxies, plants, animals, birds, beasts, reptiles of the earth and sea, and the countless amoebas, viruses, microbes, hidden beings and the angels?

The Compassionate Creator of the world, who has such unrelenting Power over “everything in the world”, dominates everything, and nothing is out of His embracing Strength.

Allah maintains the heavens and their kernels, the galaxies and the stars, the systems and their inhabitants-some of which weigh more than billions of tons-which have been floating in a certain orbit, with a definite speed for billions of years and keeps them from falling down.

Commentary of: “Wa khadha’a laha kulla shay..”

وَخَضَعَ لَهَا كُلُّ شَيٍْء وَذَلَّ لَها كُلُّ شَيْءٍ

(I ask You) by Your Strength, toward which everything is humble and before which all things are lowly.

Everything in this world, from the hidden to the visible beings, from the largest to the smallest creatures, from the most extensive galaxies, stars, and planets to the tiniest atoms that are not observable with scientific tools, are inferior before Allah. Everything is controlled by His rule and has surrendered to His wise authority, ready to be obedient to Him. All the creatures are unexceptionally submitted to Allah’s immeasurable Strength.

A phrase from a supplication stated by an infallible Imam’s conscious heart and mind reads: “Surely You are; You are the God to Whose Strength everything is capitulated and humble. You are able to do anything to Your creatures and dominate any of them. You are the One Who created all the things and have control over them. You are the Master of all things. There is no God except You. You are the Generous and the Mighty.”

Granting the exigency of a humble and weeping servant on a Thursday night is very easy for the One Who has dominated everything with His infinite Power, and to Whose Strength everything is submissive. And it is absolutely effortless for Him to manipulate His various agents in the heavens and the earth to grant His servant’s worldly and heavenly demands.

Is it possible that a heartbroken, who calls Allah by His Mercy and Strength and who knows nothing above Him, remain unfortunate? Never! It is not strange for worldly incapable beings to be incompetent in fulfilling others’ demands. However Allah’s All-Sufficient existence, and His infinite Mercy and Strength obliges the fulfillment of the supplications in accord with the servant’s expediency and His own Wisdom.

We read in the thirteenth supplication of the “Sahifa Sajjadiya”1 : “You have attributed Your creatures to poverty and they entirely need You. Therefore one, who asks You to compensate the shortcomings of his life and alter his poverty to richness, has indeed turned to the precise Position and the right One to obtain his need. And one, who asks his exigency from one of Your creatures, has certainly deprived himself and does not deserve Your favor.

I eagerly follow the path toward You and I only hope and believe in You. I know that what I ask You is easy before Your Strength, however difficult it may be to me. And I realize that what I need is so trivial for You, however significant it may be for me. Your Generosity does not become narrow by anyone’s exigency and it is Your Bounty, which is above all other generosities.”

The world and its beings that were nothing and did not even deserve a reference, became beings by Allah’s Will. And they continue existence under His Mercy and Strength. They are not independent of Allah; they are basically poor, pitiable and humble before Him.

A human being is not worthy of exhibiting power and pride before Allah’s Strength, since his body is as trivial as a handful of soil, his soul is but a moment of existence, and his mind is incapable of knowing even a tiny atom. A human cannot seperate himself before Allah Whose Mercy has surrounded all his life; otherwise it causes him loss and deprivation from Allah’s Mercy and is thus, doomed punishment.

Note

1. A book of supplications by the fifth Imam, Imam Sajjad a.s.

Commentary of: “Wa bi jabarutika’llati ghalabta biha kulla shay”

وَبِجَبرُوتِكَ الَّتِى غَلَبْتَ بِهَا كُلَّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Invincibility, through which You overwhelm all things.

Lexically, the Arabic word “جبروت ” (Invincibility) is a hyperbole; it means Allah compensates for all the shortcomings and inadequacies of the creatures by granting them every blessing, necessary tools and equipment; a lofty compensation.

All the beings are insignificant before being created; their primary element is an atom, a particle, a seed, or a trivial semen. They have inadequacies at first that are covered by Allah’s Invincibility, so that all the creatures reach their full entity and occupy their due position in the living world.

Allah’s Compensation of the insufficiencies

The compensation of creatures’ shortcomings by Allah is an important issue, some instances of which are narrated from scientific books, hoping that they increase our faith in the Lofty Source of Bounty.

Compensation of sun’s exhausted energy

The sun, which is a major source of our energy, is only a small element of this world. Its heat is so intense that no element of fire can compete with it. The surface temperature of the sun is approximately 6093 degrees centigrade; its inner temperature is yet beyond this figure. In every second, the sun renders more that twelve million and four hundred thousand tons of energy in space. In order to produce the heat used by the sun in one minute, we will need 679 million billion tons of coal.

The energy exhausted by the sun in a minute weighs about four million tons and it turns to 126’144’000’000’000 tons in each year. However, no fire can go on burning without energy. Thus, if the sun does not obtain anything from an external source and burns this amount of energy per year, why doesn’t it get cold? Meanwhile, if the sun was made of pure coal, it could not burn for more than sixty centuries.

The answer to this question is only given by Allah’s Invincibility. He has created the sun as a huge mass of gasses, which regains the exhausted energy by contraction. This fact is the result of numerous scientific studies in the east and the west who have written hundreds of pages of books that is available to us but as a simple sentence.

In fact, He is the One Who balances the objects’ exhausted energy in various ways; compensating the sun’s exhausted energy is but one sign of Allah’s Invincibility.

Compensation of Caspian Sea Tide

The Caspian Sea is about 27.6 meters beneath the sea level and it still continues to go further down. The Caspian Sea is not related to the free seas so its tide is not in concurrence with the oceans’ general ebb and flow. Due to its small size, this sea cannot use the gravity of the moon and so technically it shouldn’t have had a tide. As a result the sea should have rot long ago, polluting its shores, and losing any living things in and on it. But why did it not happen?

The Omnipotent Who created the sea very well knew how compensate this shortcoming. He sent winds called “Sarnuk”, “Khazari”, and “Miyanwa”1 that creates waves in the sea to such an extent that the rivers pouring into it have tides too. These winds blow so powerfully that most fishermen cannot even control their boats against them. Another duty of the mentioned winds is that they drive the clouds from the north to the south of the sea and produce rain in the northern shores of Iran, providing the meadows in this region a garden of flowers.

The winds also send the seawater into “Anzali marsh” to filter it. Due to constant flood-like rain, the rivers in Gilan2 are usually muddy and full of seeds and roots from the woods. The mud of the rivers pouring into the marsh thickens the bottom layer, allowing the seeds and roots, too, to grow inside the marsh. These two factors are sufficient to dry the water in the marsh and turn it into a swamp. Thus, what is the reason that this marsh has existed for hundreds of years now?

To avoid this, the Almighty sends the seawater to the floods. At the same time as the above-mentioned winds send the clouds from the north of the sea to the south, the fresh seawater flows to the muddy river water and mixes with it, making it less dense and removing any seeds and roots by its salt.

When these winds stop, Allah sends other winds called “Keramwa”, “Kenarowa” and “Aftab Bushu” to reverse the water flow, pouring the marsh water into the Caspian Sea, and hence evacuating the marsh from muddy waters.

Still two other winds called “Gilwa” and “Durushtwa” are assigned with the duty of convulsing the marsh water from the East to the West, in order to blend it together!!3

Allah’s Compensation of Fruit Seeds Shortage

Fruit seeds are useless until they are planted and are subjected to Allah’s Invincibility that shapes them in various forms.

A pleasant apple was once a tiny and closed seed inside a grocery store box. It was not of use as a seed except if it were to be planted. When the farmer placed it under the soil, some agents like fresh air, light, water and mineral elements helped it to compensate its shortcomings, by Allah’s Will. So the apple became a delicious, pleasant, and colorful fruit, which an adornment for gathering and food for humans.

Taking a quick look at the ingredients of the apple which makes us more familiar with Allah’s Invincibility:

Azotic (nitrogen) ingredients: proteins and amino acids like lizine, ursenin, histidine, and tirusine)

Minerals: iodine, potassium, boron, phosphor, calcium, iron, cupper, cudium, sulphur, manganese, zinc, and penizium.

Starch-Glucose materials: dextrose, cellulose, pentosan, and starch.

Sugars: glucose, fructose, and sucrose.

Pectic materials: pectic acid, pectin, pecthinic acid, and protopectin.

Fats and acids: malic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, ascorbic acid, and lactic acid.

Color ingredients: antocianines, and chlorophyll.

Vitamins: A, B, C, and G.

Enzymes: catalos, and oxidase.

Water: 84 percent.

This is how the Invincible compensates the shortcomings of a fruit. If we were to simply indicate His compensation to other entities as well as to spiritual elements, we would need infinite number of blank pages as much as the number of all the entire human population.

Notes

1. These are the name of the winds in Farsi Mazandarani accent.

2. Gilan is a Northern province of Iran.

3. Neshane hayi az ‘u: 151.

Commentary of: “Wa bi ‘izzatika’llati la yaqawm laha shay”

وَبِعِزَّتِكَ الَّتِى لا يَقُومُ لَهَا شَيْءٌ

(I ask You) by Your Might, which nothing can resist.

Allah has created everything by His Strength, and encompassed them with His Mercy. Everything shows humbleness and humility before Him. He has compensated all shortcomings by His Invincibility. How can anything, in whatever position it may be, resist His Might?

All inhabitants from the heavens and the earth, and from the hidden to the visible beings are but rays of His enlightening Might. The creatures are only shadows of His Essence, so how they can resist His eternal Might and infinite Strength.

The Arabic word “عزة ”, which means strength, exists in all the creatures, as part of Allah’s holy Strength. The glimmer of a small light is far inferior from the rays of an infinite and eternal source of an Illuminating Light!

فَلِلَّهِ الْعِزَّةُ جَمِيعًا .

To Allah belong all glory and power. (35:10)

Based on this holy Qur’anic verse, All the power is belonged to Allah. He grants power to anyone He wills, according to his/her capacity. He does not grant power to anyone he does not like, and regains power from anyone He wills. Therefore, no authority is independent of Him and no one can resist His Power. He is the Undefeated Might.

Commentary of: “Wa bi ‘azhamatika’llati mala’t kulla shay”

وَبِعَظَمَتِكَ الَّتِى مَلَأَتْ كُلَّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Greatness, which has filled all things.

Knowing the Actor by His Act

It is conceivable that to some extent, the position and rank of an actor can be realized through his act. An engineer, who builds a 110-story skyscraper, is probably a skillful and intelligent person.

A distinguished author, like Sadr Al-Muta’ahhilin, who have written some invaluable books such as “Asfar”, “Arshiya”, “Hikmat Muta’aliya”, “Asrar Al-Ayat”, demonstrates a great mentality and high intellect in his writings.

We recognize the skill of an inventor of an electric factory through his accurate job of illuminating the dark nights to become as bright as the days.

The Almighty’s greatness is in His Preexistence, Eternity and Infinity. But His greatness is not easily recognizable for us. Yet, we can observe rays of His Greatness by pondering on the world, the creatures, and the magnitude of creation, since His greatness is contained in everything.

We mention just two traditions and a scientific fact in order to clarify our point.

Creation of Various Worlds

The great scholar, Sayyid Hiybat Al-Din Shahristani, in his singular book “Islam wa Hiy’at” (Islam and Astronomy) has narrated from “Khisal” of Saduq, “Bihar al-Anwar” of Allamiyi Majlisi, “Anwar Nu’maniyya”, “Sharh Sahifa”, and “Tafsiri Nur Al-Thaqalayn” a tradition by Imam Sadiq (as), with a strong citation:

إنَّ للهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ اثْنَي عَشَرَ ألفِ عالَمٍ؛ كُلُّ عالَمٍ مِنْهُمْ أكْبَرُ مِنْ سَبْعِ سَمَاواتٍ وَسَبْعِ أرَضينَ، ما يُرَى عالَمٌ مِنْهُم أنَّ للهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ عالَماً غَيْرَهُمْ

The Almighty has created twelve thousand worlds, each of which is larger than all the heavens and the earth, and none of them is cognizant of the worlds outside its world!1

The contemporary astrologers believe that the living world is composed of thousands of worlds, each of which contains heavens and the earths larger than our world’s.2

By referring to numbers, the Holy Qur’an and the traditions do not intend to show the exact record or extent of things, but rather to illustrate their enormity. We should not, therefore, consider the number of the worlds as twelve thousand. The number of the worlds is far beyond what is mentioned in the holy Qur’an, the traditions, and the astrological books.

Hanging Lanterns in the Heaven and the Solar System

In his “Sharh Sahifa”, Sayyid Ni’mat Allah Jazayiri has narrated from the Prophet (S) and the infallible Imams (as) that Allah has created a hundred thousand lanterns, hanging them from the sky. Allah has placed all the heavens and the earth and the things inside them in one of these lanterns, and only He knows about what is inside the other lanterns!

Allama Shahristani, in the exigency of this fascinating tradition says that there are similarities between lanterns and the solar system:

First, a lantern is oval is shape, and according to contemporary scientists the solar system has an oval shape too.

Second, a lantern contains an object at its center that spreads light and heat, and the scientists believe that the solar system too has the sun at its heart, scattering out light and heat to the surrounding planets.

Thirdly, a lantern is floating in the air, not fixed to a wall or an object, just like our solar system which is floating in space, too.

Fourth, the illuminating object of a lantern is not exactly at its center and is leans closer to one side; the sun, too, is not at the exact center of the solar system.

Considering these resemblances, the correspondence of this tradition to the modern astrological basics and its disagreement with the old philosophy has become clear and proven. Therefore, this tradition explicitly proves the existence of thousands of worlds and solar systems, each containing separate planets, moons, suns, earths, heavens and hells, and that each of the worlds inside the lanterns is as large as a solar system and as vast as the heavens and the earth!3

Suns, the Countless Stars

In the beginning of the twentieth century, people were amazed to here that our galaxy, which is clearly observable at night, has thirty million sun. But today, it has been proved that there are ten thousand million suns, that too, only in our galaxy.

When we look at the night sky without a telescope it seems small and insignificant and not as glorious as the massive clouds on a winter day. But when viewed by a large modern telescope like the one at “Wilson” or “Palumer” observatories, the greatness of this galaxy becomes observable.

The suns are positioned so compactly in our galaxy that counting them in order to determine an exact number is not possible. No scientist has yet determined the exact number of suns in the galaxy. They can only estimate a ten thousand million number by considering a limited part of it, counting its suns, and then generalizing the number to the whole system!

The total number of the suns is presumably more than this because they are so condensed that some conceal others, making them indiscernible. Among the suns of our galaxy there are some suns that are ten million times of our sun! Sometimes the galaxies are two million light years apart from each other.

Today’s greatest telescope at the Palumar Mountain in America can observe galaxies at the distance of a thousand million light years. But occasionally some lights glitter beyond this distance that show scientists other galaxies exist, too!

The sun of the solar system weighs two billion tons and our galaxy, which is only a small corner of the great world, weighs approximately 165 thousand million times the weight of sun! Though there are so many objects scattered in the world, it is mostly empty, with so many vacancies in between!4

All this is but a small perspective of the huge world, observed by our limited telescopes. By studying these numbers and statistics that depict a very narrow view of our world, its size, depth and breadth, we can imagine the Greatness of Allah; a Greatness that is infinite and is contained in everything.

This huge world is Allah’s artwork; His factory and His book. By viewing Allah’s work, His Greatness is observable which makes us call out:

اَللهُ اَكْبَرُ مِنْ اَنْ يُوصَفَ

Allah is Exalted above what he is described.5

The most animated describers are incapable of describing Him, the most eloquent tongues are unable to express Him, and the most powerful thoughts cannot realize even a part of His Greatness!

In accord with our own understanding, we can only say the same thing our Prophet has taught us:

مَا عَرَفْنَاكَ حَقَّ مَعْرِفَتِكَ

We cannot appreciate Your due Greatness.6

Notes

1. Khisal: 2/639, min rawa anna lillah ‘azza wa jal…, tradition 14; Bihar al-Anwar: 54/320, bab 2, tradition 2.

2. Islam wa Hiy’at: 444.

3. Islam wa Hiy’at: 460.

4. Islam wa Hiy’at: 449.

5. Al-Kafi: 1/118, bab Ma’ani Al-Asma’…, tradition 9.

6. ‘Awali Al-La’i: 4/ 132, tradition 227; Bihar al-Anwar: 68/ 23, Bab 61, tradition 1.

Commentary of: “Wa bi Sultanika’alladhi ‘ala kulla shay”

وَبِسُلْطَانِكَ الَّذِى عَلاَ كُلَّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Power, which towers over all things.

In the preceding pages, you read about some limited instances of the great world. Allah’s inevitable Rule is over the world and its inhabitants. He dominates all things, and all creatures are doomed to His Powerful Reign.

Anyone who has a rightful and deserving regime in this world, it is but as a gift from Allah. Once He wills, He can take the power from one servant and grant it to another.

The rulers should consider their power as a ray of Allah’s Dominance and Rule and should not rule unfairly and unlawfully, for if they do so, they will be oppressors. As it is stated in Qur’anic verses and is proved throughout history, Allah’s revenge, which controls all things, would seize them. They cannot resist Allah’s Will, and will remain in doomed chastisement humbly and contemptibly.

It is Allah’s Rule that ordered the water descending from the sky and springing from the earth to become into storm and eliminate the disbelievers in Noah’s age. It was His Rule that sent the winds to eradicate the powerful ‘Ad tribe, just as dry grass is removed from the earth, and brought their life to an end in just a moment. It was His Rule that ordered the River Nile to send a wave and obliterate the oppressive Pharaoh and his people.

Commentary of: “Wa bi wajhika’lbaqia ba’da fana’i kully shay”

وَبِوَجْهِكَ الْبَاقِى بَعْدَ فَنَآءِ كُلِّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Face, which subsists after annihilation of all things.

Allah’s Holy Essence is the core of existence. His Existence is Preexisting and Eternal. He has always existed without any counterpart, and will always exist so. He has willed to create all things wisely, while He is independent of all things. Everything will come to an end, except He, Who will be forever.

Nothing in this world exists independently; the life of all beings is a blowing of the Divine Soul, and therefore everything is doomed to mortality. Mortality is an attribute of deficiency, while eternity is an attribute of perfection. Hence the Absolute Perfection has Absolute Eternity, and mortality is the attribute of all the beings and their lives.

Commentary of: “Wa bia’smaa’ika’llati malat Arkana kully shay”

وَبِأَسْمَآئِكَ الَّتِى مَلَأَتْ أَرْكَانَ كُلِّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Names, which have filled the foundations of all things.

The word “اسماء ” (Names) in this divine phrase does not merely denote the lexical Names that are composed of series of letters; rather it is the attributes, facts and concepts, which these Names connote.

Allah’s Mercy, Knowledge, Justice, and Power are the basics for all things. In other words, all things are signs of Allah; the Creative, the Shaper, the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing, the Just, the Wise, the Merciful, and the Compassionate.

The creatures are created, continue existence, and obtain sustenance based on these facts and attributes of Allah. The lexical Names are therefore manifestations of the real Names. What are significant in the existence, identity, and repute of “all things” are the real Names not the lexical ones.

Anyhow, Allah’s real Names are mediators for the happening of actualities in this world. In the Sama’ supplication, narrated by an Infallible Imam, we read:

أَللّهُمَّ إِنّى أَسْأَلُكَ بِاسْمِكَ الْعَظيمِ الاَْعْظَمِ الاَْعَزِّ الاَْجَلِّ الاَْكْرَمِ الَّذى إِذا دُعيتَ بِهِ عَلى مَغالِقِ أَبْوابِ السَّمآءِ لِلْفَتْحِ بِالرَّحْمَةِ انْفَتَحَتْ، وَإِذا دُعيتَ بِهِ عَلى مَضآئِقِ أَبْوابِ الاَْرْضِ لِلْفَرَجِ انْفَرَجَتْ، وَإِذا دُعيتَ بِهِ عَلَى العُسْرِ لِلْيُسْرِ تَيَسَّرَتْ، وَإِذا دُعيتَ بِهِ عَلَى الاَْمْواتِ لِلنُّشُورِ انْتَشَرَتْ، وَإِذا دُعيتَ بِهِ عَلى كَشْفِ الْبَأسآءِ وَالضَّرّاءِ انْكَشَفَتْ …

O Allah! I ask You by Your Great Name, the most Powerful, the most Notable, the most Worthy, by which if You are called for opening the heavens’ doors, they are opened by Mercy; if You are called for opening the earthly doors, they are opened; if You are called by Your Name for relieving the troubles, they are relieved; if You are called by your Great name for the Resurrection of the dead, they are alive; and if You are called for removing poorness and anxiety, they are removed…

What materializes the needs, stated in this supplication, is not the mere Name that is consisted of the letters n, m, a, and e; rather the Name itself and its reality.

The attributes that are the basis for “all things” are the reality of the existing realities, which are called “Names” in the holy Qur’an and the traditions.

Among the manifestations of Allah’s Names is the Prophet’s Household and the Infallible Imams (as), who have special characteristics and are the mediators of Allah’s Mercy for people until Day of Resurrection. Allah’s Mercy, Guidance, Compassion and Forgiveness is granted to the people through the Imams (as) and the believers’ deeds are also accepted through them.

The great scholar, al-Faydh al-Kashani, in his valuable Qur’anic exegesis “Safi” has narrated Imam Sadiq (as):

نَحْنُ وَاللهِ الأسْمَاءُ الحُسْنَى الَّذِي لا يَقْبَلُ اللهُ مِنَ العِبَادِ عَمَلاً الاَّ بِمَعْرِفَتِنَا

By Allah that we (the Prophet’s Household) are Allah’s Glorious Names; Allah accepts not a single deed from His servants except that they know us and appreciate our position.

As a result, concentrating to the lexis does not benefit the human or manifest a reality for him. We should go beyond the words and phrases to the realm of Reality, since everything apparent in the world is the sign of Allah’s real names and realities.

وَبالاسْمِ الَّذي خَلَقْتَ بِهِ العَرْشَ وَبالاسْمِ الَّذِي خَلَقْتَ بِهِ الكُرْسِيَّ وَبالاسْمِ الَّذِي خَلَقْتَ بِهِ الرُّوحَ …

By Your Name by which You created the Empyrean, by Your Name for which You created the throne, and by whose Blessings You fashioned the Soul.

Commentary of: وَبِعِلْمِكَ الَّذِى أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by Your Knowledge, which encompasses all things.

Allah’s Knowledge encompasses all of the actions and all of the times. It encompasses the apparent and hidden aspects of all beings; even that of an atom, billions of which can be placed at the point of a needle. Allah knows the number of all the creatures, even the atoms, the seeds, the drops of rain and flakes of snow. Here we just mention some verses of the holy Qur’an that is an ocean of knowledge.

وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ .

He knows what is in the heavens and what is on earth. (3:29)

وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَةٍ إِلاَّ يَعْلَمُهَا .

He knows what is in land and sea; not a leaf falls, but He knows it. (6:59)

وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تُسِرُّونَ وَمَا تُعْلِنُونَ .

And Allah knows what you keep secret and what you publish. (16:19)

يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنْ السَّمَاءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا وَهُوَ الرَّحِيمُ الْغَفُورُ .

He knows what penetrates into the earth, and what comes forth from it, what comes down from heaven, and what goes up to it; He is the All-compassionate, the All-forgiving. (34:2)

The reality of these verses becomes apparent when we closely study an incision in a hill, thousands of which are found in all five continents. Entomologists have counted nearly seven hundred thousand types of insects so far; however, the exact number of the different types of insects is impossible to be determined. In a summer day when the sky is clear, the number of flies, beetles, and millipedes moving in a hill’s incision is more than the total number of the population of that continent. If humans were to suddenly become extinct from the earth, other creatures living on the earth would hardly ever notice their absence!1

وَبِنُورِ وَجْهِكَ الَّذِى أَضَآءَ لَهُ كُلُّ شَيٍْء

(I ask You) by the Light of Your Face, through which all things are illuminated!

The Meaning of Light in Qur’anic Verses and Traditions

In the holy Qur’an and traditions, ‘light’ implies values and perfections. ‘Light’ means guidance2 . ‘Light’ means success in travelling towards belief3 . ‘Light’ means Islam, insight, knowledge. It means brightness of the spirit4 . ‘Light’ is Qur’an:

قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ مِنْ اللَّهِ نُورٌ وَكِتَابٌ مُبِينٌ .

There has come to you from Allah a light, and a Manifest Book. (5:15)

‘Light’ also means divine rules, doctrines and moral facts:

إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَا التَّوْرَاةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ .

Surely We sent down the Torah, wherein is guidance and light. (5:44)

According to these references, it becomes clear that ‘light’ is the essence of Allah’s Attributes, Accomplishments, and Glorious Names from which all the creatures benefit to the highest degree of their existence, capacity, and capability. The creatures would then get rid of their obscurity.

In this apt situation, the talented human goes from the darkness of inexistence to the light of existence, from incapability to perfection, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge, from oppression to justice, from unbelief to faith, from deviation to guidance, from materialism to spirituality; in order to rise in position, all due to Allah’s Light, Names, and Attributes, Who is the Pure Light and Reality.

Qur’anic verses and the traditions of Prophet’s Household (as) imply that “Light of Face” has the same realities and perfections, a thousand of which have been pointed out in Jowshan Kabir supplication.

The reason ‘Light’ is used as a singular is because all of Allah’s Lofty Names are actually His Existence, and there is nothing as noun or adjective in His Holy Sanctuary. Knowledge, Wisdom, Justice, Mercy, Compassion… are all the Existence of the One.

Since ‘Light’ mainly means guidance in Islamic texts the above-mentioned phrase may mean: “O Allah! I ask You by Your Guidance, by which all the creatures are guided.”

Thus, the word ‘light’ covers all the heavenly concepts and attributes, and it is left to common sense to choose among the various meanings according to the situation.

Notes

1. Danestani hayi jahan I ilm: 190.

2. al-Mizan: 1/487.

3. Tafsir Abu Al-Futouh: 1/331.

4. Kashf Al-Asrar: 1/ 703.

Commentary of: يَّا نُورُ يَا قُدُّوسُ يَآ أَوَّلَ الأَوَّلِينَ وَيَآ آخِرَ الآخِرِينَ

O Light! O All-Holy! O First of the first and Last of the last!

O the Perfect One! You are the One whose friend and servant, Imam Hussain (as) called You in the desert of Arafah on ‘Arafat day:

أَيَكُونُ لِغَيْرِكَ مِنَ الظُّهُورِ ما لَيْسَ لَكَ، حَتّى يَكُونَ هُوَ الْمُظْهِرَ لَكَ، مَتى غِبْتَ حَتّى تَحْتاجَ إِلى دَليل يَدُلُّ عَليْكَ، وَمَتى بَعُدْتَ حَتّى تَكُونَ الاْثارُ هِىَ الَّتى تُوصِلُ إِلَيْكَ؟

Does anything have an existence which You don’t have, so that it would give You existence? You have never been hidden to need any reason to justify You, and You have never been far away to need the signs to direct us to You.

O Lord! When I leave my transient state and return to my own self, looking closely, I observe that the Light of Your Beauty is clearer than everything else. You are by no means hidden, thus I do not need any form of light to search Your Divine Position, because once I take a reality as the reason for my exploration, I come to understand that the reality and the light are both Your creations.

When and where were You absent that You need a rationale justifying, and when and where have You been away so that Your signs direct us to You?

You are free of all faults, and greater than anything to which You are described. You are the most Perfect, the Absolute Reality, the Light and the Holy. You are the First of the first, but there is no beginning for Your Holy Existence, and You are the Last of the last without having an end. You are Preexisting while You make all things begin, and You are Eternal after all beings will annihilate.

The first and the last are two attributes for all your creations. All of them have been given a beginning and an end. The entities have a beginning, for once upon a time they were nothing and You created them, and they have an end means that the creatures come to an end. You bring them to an end. So You have existed before “all things” and nothing had existed before You, and You will exist after “all things” and nothing would exist after You.

O First of the first and Last of the last!